MANILA, Philippines – No secrets. No information withheld.

Ruby Tuason, the self-confessed pork barrel bagman, denied allegations that she was holding back information on other legislators involved in the scam so as to pin down only those from the opposition and get herself accepted as a state witness.

“I am not covering up for anybody and I know that. You can’t really please everybody. Basta ako, konsensiya ko malinis,” she said on Friday, February 21, during a forum at the Ateneo de Manila University. (I know my conscience is clean.)

Tuason is currently a provisional state witness – she may or may not be dropped by government after investigators assess the weight of her testimony.

She appeared at the Ateneo forum days after one of her alleged former principals, Senator Jinggoy Estrada, claimed that Tuason offered other senators commissions in exchange for endorsing their Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) to Janet Lim Napoles’ fake NGOs. Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago said she tended to believe Estrada over Tuason on this matter.

The Ateneo forum almost didn’t happen. “I didn’t want her to be involved in a speaking engagement because it might conflict with matters pending before the Ombudsman. But the organizers assured us that they will control the matters that will be discussed,” said Tuason’s lawyer, Dennis Manalo.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said in a text message to reporters that there was nothing wrong with Tuason’s appearance in a forum. “It’s an exercise of her right to free expression in relation to the public’s right to know,” she said. 

Only students, faculty members, and Ateneo alumni were allowed to ask questions that were, in turn, vetted by Manalo. Journalists were not allowed to ask questions.

Watch this video report below.

Telling the truth?

Tuason, social secretary of former President Joseph Estrada, allegedly connected Napoles to Senator Jinggoy Estrada and the former chief of staff of Senator Juan Ponce Enrile, lawyer Jessica “Gigi” Reyes. Tuason, Reyes, Estrada, Enrile, and Senator Ramon Revilla Jr are all respondents in a plunder complaint filed by the justice deparment before the Ombudsman.

Tuason’s affidavit – and her recent testimony before the Senate blue ribbon committee – has been cast in doubt, even after several government officials said she would seal the case shut against Estrada and Enrile.

The “perfect state witness” is how Senator Santiago described Tuason during the Senate hearing. But the same senator later said Tuason seemed to be covering up for Enrile by implicating only his former chief of staff.

Tuason denied Estrada’s allegation that she peddled PDAF deals to other senators. She said she was picky when it came to the people she dealt with – especially when it came to soliciting funds for projects and offering kickbacks.

“I don’t just go to any senator. I choose, ‘yung friends talaga,” she added. (I only choose those I’m friends with.) She was friends with Estrada and Reyes. She also said she did not have transactions with other legislators.

Everything she knows

Three senators – Santiago, Antonio Trillanes IV, and Alan Peter Cayetano – tried, but failed to make Tuason directly implicate Enrile in the scam.

Tuason, in her testimony said she delivered kickbacks to Estrada in the Senate back in 2008, but does not recall the exact time and date. She also said in her affidavit that she never spoke to Enrile about his pork barrel, and spoke only to Reyes. Enrile, however, would drop by to pick up Reyes at they end of their meetings.

“I already told them everything I know,” Tuason added. “I may be lacking in details, [but] it’s simply because of my age. Just have patience with me,” she said at the Ateneo forum.

“I’m 72, not 62, contrary to what other reports say,” she said.

Asked by students in the forum if she knew where the money from kickbacks have gone, Tuason simply answered: “I don’t know.” It was one of the many things Tuason said was not privy to.

But, Tuason insisted, she was saying everything she knew. “I am here to right my wrongs, by revealing what I know is true,” she said.

The truth – or the truth according to Tuason – is crucial. The Ombudsman will soon decide if Tuason can be admitted as state witness, absolving her of wrongdoing in the case.

Tuason, however, is facing a second plunder complaint, this time involving the diversion of Malacañang’s Malampaya fund to Napoles’ NGOs. – Rappler.com